From ecstasy to agony: trials and tribulations of following new-look City a reminder of work still to be done

The alarm sounds. You wake up. You rise, make yourself breakfast, have a coffee and jump in the shower. You scan your wardrobe for your desired yellow and green garment and throw it on. Tickets? Check. Railcard? Got it. The away day has started.

Whether it be Durham or Acle, expectations are high as you approach the station. The buzz, the optimism, the sense of anticipation that offers such a unique and unparalleled high kicks in. You collect your tickets. You board your train. The journey begins.

Your attention turns to the more tangible matters as the beer starts flowing and the journey progresses. What team should Farke play? Husband or Stiepermann? Vrancic or Wildschut? If only Oliviera was fit. When’s Pritchard back? Two delays and multiple changes later, you arrive at your desired destination, the place you so fervently hope to depart six hours later with three precious away points.

Such a pre-match ritual has occurred eight times for me so far in this peculiar season for City, a campaign characterised by such acute unpredictability and one that has elicited such a complex range of varying emotions.

It started in the capital, where Nelson’s late-show and subsequent antics left us all singing his name jubilantly by the Thames, encountered some alarming obstacles at Villa Park and The Den, before reaching its zenith at Bramall Lane, the Riverside and the Madjeski as part of that super September.

It’s been hard work. Even during that almost surreal set of results that preceded my return to university, City did not make it easy. Timm Klose and Christoph Zimmerman headed, blocked and tackled relentlessly for 45 minutes at a growingly vehement Bramall Lane to thwart periods of seemingly unabating pressure, while we have the usually-clinical Britt Assombalonga to thank for directing a completely free header straight at Angus Gunn from just six yards at Boro. Four days later in Berkshire, City had to fight again after James Maddison’s magic was rendered insufficient in attaining a televised win.

Cameron Jerome was the hero that day. The tenacious, indefatigable and Wembley-scoring Jerome who it seems will continually be derided as a scapegoat by those fans who lack the perceptiveness to diagnose City’s real problems. Yes, it is regrettable that Jerome was poor at the Macron on Saturday, but what my six-hour round trip from the north-east was rewarded with that day was a performance that underwhelmed collectively and lacked the requisite bite, purpose or penetration necessary at this level.

It had started so well for City. The opening half-an-hour constituted a dominant Championship display, a period where the impressive Harrison Reed and ‘super’ Tom Tybull saw considerable amounts of possession and assisted moves that saw Farke’s side get in behind on several occasions through Ivo Pinto, Yanic Wildschut and Jerome. When the real chance came, Jerome blew it.

But forget Jerome. While his hold-up play lacked its usual reliability and his finishing was familiarly wasteful, City’s collective inability to respond to going two goals behind against a Bolton side who had shipped 28 goals in 15 games before yesterday was the issue of real concern.

Once again, our build-up play was pedestrian, lateral and laboured, delineating an undesired sense of continuity between the current regime and the one that Alan Irvine inherited in March this year.

Although we have seen change – City do move the ball slightly quicker now – our possession under Alex Neil also lacked the penetration and end-product that sides such as Nuno’s Wolves and Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United have demonstrated in so much abundance this season. This may be a – to employ a much over-used cliché by Norwich fans this season – ‘work in progress’, but such a lack of purpose when we have the ball needs to be addressed urgently.

I’m still confident Farke can deliver. He resolved the defensive issues that became manifest in August with laudable rapidity over September’s international break. Although the solidity we all crave has yet to fully come to fruition – set pieces remain a concern and Zimmerman was slow to track Gary Madine’s run in Lancashire – September’s resilience on the road showed us all that this side are capable of thwarting attacks for ninety minutes. Farke must now focus on enhancing our efficacy when we are doing the attacking ourselves.

The return of Alex Pritchard and the mercurial Nelson will inevitably help. While Jerome has done little to eradicate our creativity-related problems, fans calling for the return of Carlton Morris and the premature call-up of Tristan Abrahams – as alluded to by the eminent Robin Sainty on Twitter on Saturday evening – are missing the point. Instead, it is our side’s overall lack of ideas going forward and our inability to chase a game when falling behind that needs amending.

The impending two-week break has come at a good time. With a winnable home game against Barnsley and a trip to the City Ground awaiting us after England’s international travails, Farke has a chance to improve our purpose and sense of direction when we have the ball. It is a cruel irony that last season’s seemingly irreparable defensive woes have now been replaced by bleak inability to score goals, a problem that is only exacerbated when we find ourselves behind. On so many occasions so far this season, that first goal has proved crucial.

So now we wait. We can only hope that Oliviera’s injury frustration can be terminally put to rest over the next fortnight, while Pritchard’s lengthy rehabilitation process continues to show signs of promise. Their respective returns are key. Three months into a long-term and ever-developing project, City lie just three points off the play-offs and not far off the pace.

Farke will learn from Saturday’s defeat. Next time that alarm sounds and I embark on another trip across the country, I am confident that I’ll be able to witness something more rewarding.

Reader Interactions

Comments

A very good read, Will. There’s no doubting Daniel Farke is doing the best with what he’s got, but I cannot think of three players I would less like to see injured than the triumvirate of Nelson, Pritchard and Tettey.

The lack of pace in the side is concerning as well.

While I am not one of those who thinks promotion is “this year or bust” further future financial restrictions are hardly likely to help.

I’m not sure that it is too Ironic that we have switched from “last season’s seemingly irreparable defensive woes have now been replaced by bleak inability to score goals”. It is more of a coaching decision. You put extra defensive bodies on the pitch and your goalscoring and chance creation will inevitably deminish. If you looked at Farke’s Dortmand II record, Low scoring games was perhaps inevitable, their defence was exceptional, but they were outscored by many below them.
It is also a little early to proclaim our defensive woes to be sorted, It’s now 3 games on the spin with 2 goals conceded in each. Whether you chose to write these off as individual errors in a more robust system or say the system is not still right (Zonal marking Grrrrr) there is still work to be done. It seems no coincidence that we have dropped off the best form since Tettey was injured. He is our best defensive midfielder, but what we might have hoped would happen in his absense, i.e. an inprovement in working the ball and making chances, with perhaps consequently more goals, hasn’t happened but we are no longer so defensively sound.
Can Farke solve this conundrum? Is it simply that we must have Nelson fit to carry any goal threat? I don’t buy that it is just down to the players missing chances, systemically we don’t produce enough good ones and Farke needs to sort that out. It seems so obvious to most observers but that has to start with moving the ball quicker, passing it around infront of a set defence is not likely to get you anywhere especially with your only forward usually outwide. Once we get the oposition pined back is there a plan for how to beat their defence? I guess to pass it till an opening appears, but if it doesn’t, then pass it back to Gunn to start again.
This international break desperately needs some development of a cohesive attacking plan, draw a blank verses Barnsley and there is little doubt the crowd will be getting a little sick of the crumbs being offered up at home.
I disagree with Martin too, There is pace in the squad and the team, it is being shackled by a pedestrian game plan that allows the opposition to sit back compact and leave little space for our pacy players to exploit,. Josh, Marley and Yannik all have pace, but are not being given the chance to use it running in behind. Marley must be wondering what he’s done coming here, the game plan from Farke seems so at odds with his skill set that his chances of impressing are negligable.

Maybe it is indeed a case of what pace we do have not being properly utilised, But to me the central mid players (such as Vrancic particularly) seem to be more than a little on the sluggish side. We just don’t have a box-to-boxer such as Damien Francis or Bradley J any more. CamJam seems to have lost a yard on a sprint in the last 18 months – no surprise given his ever-advancing age, of course.

Klose and Zimmermann are not the quickest, neither are Stiepermann or Husband. Sure you could argue that CBs in general (no pun intended) do not rely on pace alone, but the way Gary Madine got across Stiepermann kind of illustrates what I was saying.

True a number of our players don’t look particularly quick, but I’m sure you could say that of many teams. Speed of thought and general movement is what’s lacking. Madine got across Steiperman? (I thought it was Zimmermann, will have to watch it back) because he started first anticipating the cross and our defender was on his heels. Many of the best players (I’m not saying Madine is one of those!) make those yards not through raw pace but with the top 3 inches,
Central defenders have never been the fastest of breeds, but usually they counter that with the organisation with their fellow defenders. As for the rest I would still say that whilst not particularly fast it is our pattern of play that means what pace there is not utilised effectively. If we had different tactics, Marley’s pace could be better used instead of CJ’s graft.

Interesting comments from Martin and the General. I agree about the pace issue though, we do have plenty of pace but are simply not using or working the ball around fast enough to create space in the final third. The General made a good point about ‘defence vs attack’ but I think you could also extend that a bit by saying that the balance to retain possession isn’t quite right either. The result is a fairly sluggish and static system.

There is absolutely no doubt that Tettey’s injury absence has been a massive loss. Put simply, he does the dirty work effectively and gives more attacking players the confidence to attack space and the ball. I can’t help but think that not having adequate cover for Tettey has been an oversight. For me Godfrey is the obvious candidate and whilst he is certainly benefitting from a seemingly good loan spell at Shrewsbury it has inevitably come at the expense of the team. Given Tettey’s injury record I can’t help but think that Godfrey would have got a good chunk of game time.
OTBC

Do you think Godfrey would have started before Reed? I know what you’re saying but at least by the time he comes back he will had a good solid run of matches – that will then be the interesting time to see how good he is.

Last week, Ed Balls was reported as saying the Club would be disappointed if they are not in the top 6 by Christmas and in the play off positions at the seasons end. With 10 or more players in the squad still earning more than twice the average of championship teams plus an input of new, hungry, players, that does not seem unreasonable. The Board seems to think it is possible despite the churn in the summer. We have seven games before Christmas, to the half way point in the season, to begin to show whether that expectation is a possibility.
The problem is the home form. From day one we have never looked like creating sufficient chances to score enough goals. And nine points out of 8 games, with no wins in five, is relegation form. So whilst the next four home games all seem winnable on paper, based on current form they do not.
Farke is still relatively new to this level, to the English game and to coaching a group including such diverse, experienced players. And to do what we need, to create a unit to score more goals, does not seem to be what he has achieved in the past. But, it seems the Board and Webber feel he can do it and let’s hope they are right.
I go along with what is said above about Marley Watkins. He came to us with a good reputation. Are we playing to his strengths.? What, perhaps, Farke needs to learn is how to get the best out of the players he has available, not for certain players to fit into a structure to which they are not suited

Watching MOTD again beause of course I am. The first goal made by an overlapping Byram making space for an advancing Tettey, that's right Tettey to take the ball wide, cross to win the corner. Hard to pick an MoM but Tettey was immense after so little football #ncfc

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